The Top 40 ‘SNL’ Characters Of All-Time: #10-1

This weekend marks the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, which is headed into its 40th season. In honor of this landmark anniversary, the Decider team has been engaged in furious debates about the merits of various original characters that the Not Ready For Primetime players have performed on the show over the years. Throughout the course of this week, we’ll be counting down our list of the TOP 40 SNL CHARACTERS OF ALL-TIME (which, we should note, does NOT include impressions).

The schedule is as follows:Tuesday, September 23:#40-31Wednesday, September 24:#30-21Thursday, September 25:#20-11Today: The Top Ten

Now, without further ado…

10. ED GRIMLEY

STARRING: Martin ShortAPPEARANCES: 8 (1984-96)WHY:SNL was on its deathbed in 1984 when Martin Short joined the cast. The departure of Eddie Murphy drove audience interest down to the point where the show was almost canceled, but a last ditch effort by producer Dick Ebersol to convince SCTV star Short to star on SNL ended up saving the show. Short’s man-child Grimley, a character he carried over from SCTV, was not very well known in the States when it debuted, but his obsessive love for Wheel Of Fortune host Pat Sajak and “I must say!” catchphrase eventually became SO popular with adults and children alike that the Grimley character was transformed into a Saturday morning cartoon. [Watch an Ed Grimley/Reverend Jesse Jackson sketch (!) on Yahoo Screen]

9. THE FESTRUNK BROTHERS

STARRING: Steve Martin and Dan AykroydAPPEARANCES: 6 (1976-2013)WHY: These two “wild and crazy guys,” Yortuk and Georg, were Czech immigrants who moved to the United States in search of “big American breasts.” The Swingin’ Seventies were in full hedonistic bloom when these characters made their debut, and these two human Muppets were a reflection of their time and instantly became iconic figures in the popular culture. If this sketch came from any era other than the ’70s, the joke would have been that their bumbling ways and overaggressive behavior were an instant turn-off to the ladies (see: The Butabi Brothers), but things were SO crazy in the ’70s that even these two jabronis got laid constantly!

8. MARY KATHERINE GALLAGHER

STARRING: Molly ShannonAPPEARANCES: 19 (1995-2007)WHY: Clumsy, extremely competitive, and prone to delivering monologues from made-from-TV movies, Mary Katherine Gallagher was a force of nature trapped inside the body of an weird Catholic schoolgirl. Molly Shannon certainly owes a debt to the work of SNL trailblazer Gilda Radner, but Shannon took that familiar insanity to another level. She was an uncompromising physical performer, most often closing her Mary Katherine Gallagher sketches with a major pratfall (the kind that looked like they hurt) and a dose of awkward sexuality. But at the heart of Mary Katherine Gallagher was a need for acceptance that was instantly recognizable and relatable.—Tyler Coates

7. CHURCH LADY

STARRING: Dana CarveyAPPEARANCES: 21 (1986-2011)WHY: “Well isn’t that special?” One of SNL‘s enduring strengths has been its ability to hold a mirror up to American society and spin those reflections into comic gold, and Dana Carvey’s Church Lady was a shining example of this. Televangelists of the ’80s like Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Swaggart were at the height of their powers when the Church Lady was conceived, and her condescending attitude towards all things secular made for some hilarious interactions with the biggest pop culture figures of the time (see the example of Joe Montana and Walter Payton above). If this character had come out a few years later, it very well may have been turned into a feature film, which would have drastically altered Dana Carvey’s career and legacy.

6. TODD DILAMUCA AND LISA LOOPNER (AKA THE NERDS)

STARRING: Bill Murray and Gilda RadnerAPPEARANCES: 13 (1978-80)WHY: Can you think of two sweeter characters in the history of SNL? We can’t. These two adorable outcasts may not have been very popular at school, but they (and viewers alike) were able to take solace in their unbreakable friendship. Between their noogies and ubiquitous catchphrases (“That’s so funny I forgot to laugh”), The Nerds ultimately triumphed and became some of the most popular characters in the 40-year history of Saturday Night Live.

5. THE KLARVINS (AKA THE LOVAHS)

STARRING: Will Ferrell and Rachel DratchAPPEARANCES: 7 (2001-03)WHY: The unquenchable sexual thirst of Roger and Virginia Klarvin is the engine that drives the (glistening) bellylaughs of “The Lovers” sketches. These two academics in constant pursuit of a threesome—or even a foursome!—try (and fail) to woo their potential sex partners with hilariously gross tales of their past sexytimes, which more often than not involve Bacchanialian consumption of “spreadable meats” and “moussaka.” Ferrell and Dratch often cracked each other up in these sketches, which just added to the hilarity.

4. MISTER ROBINSON

STARRING: Eddie MurphyAPPEARANCES: 9 (1981-84)WHY: Few performers have rocketed to superstardom quicker than Eddie Murphy. He was only 19 years old when he was cast on Saturday Night Live, and his characters like Buckwheat and Gumby were hits right out of the gate, as was Mister Robinson. The latter, though, made the most lasting impact because of the way it critiqued the whitebread world of Mr. Rogers—as well as the audience it was directed towards—without ever veering into self-righteous angry territory. Murphy’s beaming smile stood in stark contrast to the gritty interior of his apartment, and Murphy’s one-of-a-kind delivery turned every single line, no matter how innocuous, into a laugh.

3. STEFON

STARRING: Bill HaderAPPEARANCES: 18 (2008-14)WHY: Jimmy Fallon’s SNL legacy was marred by his inability to keep a straight face, but in an ironic twist, Hader’s corpsing is what made him a legend. Much like Brian Fellow, Hader’s first appearance as Stefon in November of 2008—he played Ben Affleck’s brother!—totally bombed. After taking some time to refine the character, Stefon re-emerged in April of 2010 as a desk character during Weekend Update. Thanks to Stefon creator John Mulaney’s propensity to rewrite jokes just moments before cameras began rolling, Hader often saw jokes for the first time on cue cards as he was performing them. These references were so weird and over-the-top that Hader broke character, usually a Lorne Michaels no-no, but since the audience was laughing right along with him, it worked.

2. WAYNE’S WORLD

STARRING: Mike Myers and Dana CarveyAPPEARANCES: 21 (1989-2011)WHY: The most popular SNL characters of all-time, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are Wayne Campbell (Myers) and Garth Algar (Carvey). They had more zeitgeist-grabbing catchphrases than we have space to rattle off here, many of which are still part of the parlance after 25 years. The Wayne’s World movies own the distinction of being the biggest box office hit of any Saturday Night Live franchise—$182MM in global box office for the original and another $50MM domestic for the sequel—and rightly cemented the financial fortune for everyone involved. As popular as they were, however, there is one character who our esteemed panel of experts deemed to be just slightly better…

1. MATT FOLEY

STARRING: Chris FarleyAPPEARANCES: 8 (1993-97)WHY: Motivational speaker Matt Foley lives in a van down by the river. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, when played by the once-in-a-generation force of nature that was Chris Farley, the character became something else entirely. No one, not even the unbreakable legend Phil Hartman, could contain their laughter during the first and most famous appearance of Matt Foley back in May of 1993. Everyone in the audience AND on the stage knew that they were witnessing something truly special and wholly unique the second that Farley bounded on stage, a few minutes of pure comedy magic that, thankfully, were captured by cameras and preserved for all eternity. Future SNL sketches that featured Matt Foley were admittedly unable to match the electricity of this moment, but then again, most would candidly admit that no other moment in the 40 year history of the show was able to either. That is why Team Decider selected Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker as the #1 SNL Character of All-Time.